The Mystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis / Edition 1

by Jordan Paper

Overview

The mystic, zero, or void experience—the ecstatic disappearance of self along with everything else—is considered by those who have had it to be the most beautiful, blissful, positive, profound, and significant experience of their lives. Offering both a descriptive and a comparative perspective, this book explores the mystic experience across cultures as both a human and cultural event. The book begins and ends with descriptions of the author's own mystical experiences, and looks at self-reported experiences by individuals who do not link their experiences to a religious tradition, to determine characteristics of this universal human experience.

These characteristics are compared to statements of acknowledged mystics in diverse religious traditions. The mystic experience is also situated within other ecstatic religious experiences to distinguish it from similar, but distinct, experiences such as lucid dreams, shamanism, and mediumism. Jordan Paper goes on to look at how the mystic experience has been considered in various fields, such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, and comparative religious studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791462508
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	10/14/2004
Series:	SUNY series in Religious Studies
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jordan Paper is Professor Emeritus of Humanities at York University and Associate Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He has written several books, including Offering Smoke: The Sacred Pipe and Native American Religion and The Chinese Way in Religion, Second Edition (coedited with Laurence G. Thompson).

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

An Event
General Characteristics of the "Event"
A Name for the Experience
The Mystic Experience in Cultural Context
A Caution to Readers

2. Phenomenology (Descriptive Analysis) of the Mystic Experience

Naive Reports
Reports by "Professional" Mystics
Conclusions

3. The Varieties of Ecstatic Experience

Human Nature and Ecstatic Experiences
Functional Ecstasies

Visions, Lucid Dreams, and Problem-Solving
Dreams
Shamanism
Mediumism
Prophecy

Nonfunctional Ecstasies

Unitive Experiences
Pure Consciousness
The Mystic Experience

4. Previous Studies

Philosophical Analyses
Psychological Analyses
Sociological Analyses
Anthropological Analyses
Combined Approaches: Anthropology and Psychology
Biological Analyses
Near-Death Experience Studies
Comparative Religion Studies

5. Ethnohermeneutics I: Non-West

Shamanistic and Mediumistic Traditions
South Asia

The Upanishads
Hinduism
Buddhism

Chinese Religion

6. Ethnohermeneutics II: West

Plotinus
Judaism

Christianity
Catholicism

Orthodoxy
Islam
Modern "Secular" Mysticism

Cosmic Consciousness
Absolute Consciousness

7. Conclusions: The Mystic Experience and Human Nature

A Phenomenological Assessment
Comparative Ethnohermeneutics
Summary

Works Consulted

Index